I've been wanting a GPS for a while, and prompted by a trip to Woolongong I stopped in at Harvey Norman Penrith. After some bartering and flashing cash, the deal was done. They were $600 richer, I was walking outside with a bright orange TomTom box.
Packaging
Open the box and you're greeted with your new TomTom in a protective shell, the Map SD card in its little holder and owners card.. you need that to register on TomTom.com
Under the top layer is the installation poster, owners manual, CD-ROM.
Under them is your window suction cup, cigarette adapter and USB data cable.
Installation
Well, I found installing and setting up super-simple without needing to use the poster or read the manual. For less technically minded people (like my mother) it'd be a bit of painful experience trying to follow vague pictures on the poster, and thin on info in the manual.
But its easy enough. Take out TomTom, slip the SD card in, put the cigarette jack in, plug into TomTom's base, slip it into the holder and stick the cap onto the windscreen. Turn on Accessories, hold in the Power button for 2 seconds and away we go. TomTom initialises, loads the maps, locates the satellites and starts tracking your position.
Usage
This baby is super-simple to use. No buttons, no D-Pads, no messing around. Just a simple, clear and easy to understand touchscreen interface.
To get going just tap the screen, tap Navigate To.. then follow the prompts. Type in a city/town name, an address or a "Point Of Interest" (POI) and away TomTom goes planning the route, it will ask if you want to avoid tolls (handy for me, I dont have an E-Tag !) and thats it. Once the plannings is done you're shown a small map showing the route, tap DONE and thats it !
The 3D display shows the road you are on with the path to follow marked in Brown, all other roads in white. POI's such as Train Stations, Service Stations, etc pop up on the display as you approach automatically. You can disable these in the Preferences, or add more ! (www.ozpoi.com has some good free ones to install).
Direction changes are marked with a green arrow on the map. Bottom right gives a pre-emptive display of the next directional change, and how far away it is. Turns and directions are also given as voice prompts. You are given a warning when approaching the turn/direction (depending on speed, the warning may be 300m away or 1km away).
What happens if you miss a turn ? TomTom just quickly re-calculates and alters the directions, informing you of the new directions as you approach the next intersection. No fuss, no messing about, no constant "turn around".
The short of it
The Good:
- Affordable
- Easy to use, with more advanced options if you play around
- Bluetooth connectivity, display SMS on TomTom, use TomTom as a hands free, check the weather !
- Works perfectly right out of the box
- Works in other countries once you buy the maps !
- Free POI downloads enable Road Angel functionality
The Bad:
- Premium services (Traffic reports, etc) arent free, and arent available in Australia anyway
- Easily knocked off.. dont forget to take it with you or it'll be gone when you come back
- Directions can be a bit sketchy (twice it told me to drive straight on dead straight stretched of road, and twice it warned about impending round-a-bouts which werent there)
Bottom line
If you've got $650 burning a hole in your pocket and want a GPS, grab it. Right now. If you can, they are selling out all over the place because they're just that good (mine was the last one in Penrith's store).